Hello everyone. I recently purchased a used Marshall Code 100 amp. It sounded great at home and at rehearsals I had it on a milk carton a couple of times and sound was still good. Then, I put it on an amp stand which put it at about my chest level. The sound has now seemed to completely change. The sounds are more tinnier (even with a Les Paul) and lower strings on my telecaster can sound muddier on some settings. Can this much sound difference happen with the position? Anyone else have this amp and run into this problem? is there something wrong with the amp? Thanks!
Hello Tony
I would say most amps are like this. If you are listening directly on the axis of the speaker it will have a lot more higher frequencies. It should be noted however that the Code series is probably a bit more directional than most amps and therefore more prone to this effect. If it is at floor level (or just off the floor) a lot of what you hear will be missing the higher frequency components that are more directional and are heading straight out. As you bring the amp higher you will start to hear more and more of these high frequencies.
There is a good side to this. It gives you an appreciation for the ear splitting ice picking you are firing directly into the audiences faces and will hopefully encourage you to adjust the sound (or redirect it) to give a more pleasing sound.
My personal prefrence is having the amp just a few inches off the ground but tilted back. To me this seems to give me a better EQ to hear what the amp is really putting out, plus it aims all those high frequencies above the heads of the audience and disperses the frequencies better (at least in my opinion anyway).
You can easily test this by going back to your milk crates and see if you prefer the sound, but if you do and what to keep it like that, then spare a thought for the audiences hearing as you slowly destroy their ears high frequency response...
I totally agree with Joliet Jake. All said.
Another - totally different - approach might also be to "open" the amp's back, e.g. by sawing out the middle of the back-plate (40x30 cm for example, or with a 2x12-combo maybe 50x40 cm). This might result in a much "smoother" sound, since the sound-waves can leave the cabinet or the combo in more than one direction and so distribute not so linear.
But before you "destroy" the cabinet or combo just remove the back by unscrewing it and lean it against the wall or sth. else. So you can get at least a first impression whether that "other" sound would suit you.
